by Richard Donovan, June 2003
Japan is like the shadow of The Matrix, stretching out elusively behind it as a kind of history, more than as a directly illuminating reference such as the obvious nods (should that be bows?) to Hong Kong action movies in the many fight scenes, and the genuflections to Christian themes such as sacrifice and redemption. Nevertheless, like a shadow, things Japanese are responsible for lending a certain depth to the proceedings.
The Matrix series' directors the Wachowski brothers have a pedigree that would perhaps find more widespread respect in Japan than the west. They began their narrative work as comic-book artists, working on Marvel Comics' Ectokid. In Japan, manga are seen as an alternate form of storytelling rather than the poor cousin of the novel, something with which the Wachowskis clearly concur. They are on record as big fans of anime, the animated version of manga, citing in particular their love of SF cult classics Akira (1988) and Ghost in the Shell (1996/98), which both began life as manga. In fact, the online Wikipedia contends that The Matrix contains direct allusions to both films:
Both a scene almost at the end of the movie, where Neo's breathing seems to buckle the fabric of reality in a corridor he is standing in, as well as the "psychic children" scene in the Oracle's waiting room, are evocative of similar scenes from the 1980s anime classic Akira. The title sequence, the rooftop chase scene where an agent breaks a concrete tile on the roof when landing after a jump, the scene late in the movie where a character hides behind a column while pieces of it are blown away by bullets, and a chase scene in a fruit market where shots hit watermelons, are practically identical to shots in another anime science fiction classic, Ghost in the Shell.
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